Winthrop's Southern magnolia took on new adornment this
year when it was designated the 2010 Heritage Tree. The
magnolia has stood as an idyllic icon in front of
Tillman Hall for decades and doubles
as the university's Christmas tree. This year's
tree also has the 125th anniversary star. Other holiday festivities include the RockHettes
dancers' participation in ChristmasVille, Rock Hill's
downtown festival, and a faculty/staff party attended by
education faculty members Mel Horton and Shelley Hamill.

University News

South
Carolina Receives $16 Million to Improve Biomedical
ResearchTen
S.C. colleges and universities, including
Winthrop, have received $16 million to develop biomedical research
programs in areas such as regenerative medicine,
biochemistry and molecular biology. Winthrop will
receive about $2.6 million to focus efforts on the
matriculation of students into graduate programs in the
biomedical sciences, said Pat Owens, chair of the
Department of Chemistry, Physics and Geology.

Janet
Gray Selected as Kinard Award Recipient
An exceptional theatre faculty member who is a
first-rate designer will receive a prized faculty award
for teaching during the Dec. 18 undergraduate
Commencement. Also during the 11 a.m. ceremony at
Winthrop Coliseum, the university will award 279 degrees
to graduating seniors and an honorary degree of Doctor
of Humane Letters to Charlotte, N.C., businessman and
philanthropist Irwin “Ike” Belk.

Thomas
Haggai
Thomas S. Haggai knows the importance of early
education. He credited the great teachers he had in
school in the first eight grades with his own
achievements and his strong belief in the value of
education. The Tom Haggai and Associates Foundation
underwrites seven nontraditional students in the Richard
W. Riley College of Education to receive an annual
$5,000 award.

Free
WU Holiday Print to 2010 Recurring Gift Donors
New donors who sign up to make a recurring gift – a gift
which automatically draws monthly from a checking account,
debit or credit card – will receive a holiday print of
Winthrop once they make their gift – good through Jan.
31.

Silverman
Tapped for Inaugural Palmer Professorship
Jason Silverman, an award-winning history professor at
Winthrop, was selected as the inaugural recipient of the
Ellison Capers Palmer Jr. Professorship. A specialist in
the history of the Old South and Civil War, Silverman
plans to use his four-year tenure to complete two books,
one on Preston Smith Brooks and another on Abraham
Lincoln and his views on immigration and ethnicity.

Winthrop claimed a key non-conference win on Sunday
as the Eagles placed four players in double figures
and snapped Jacksonville’s six-game winning streak
with a 73-66 victory at the Winthrop Coliseum. The
Eagles were led by Robbie Dreher with a game-high 18
points.